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Google's Chrome computing system to debut in fall (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jun 2010 | 4:00 am Microsoft slags off Google - Inquirer
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:55 am Apple boss defends conditions at iPhone factory - BBC News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:50 am New AT&T data plans for iPhones, iPads, smartphones - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:45 am Steve Jobs champions Apple at D8 conference (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:41 am Forensic Astronomer Solves Walt Whitman MysteryNew Scientist has a piece on the uncommon art of forensic astronomy. Texas State University physicist Donald Olson has solved the mystery of Walt Whitman's meteor poem, thanks to clues found in an 1860 painting by Frederic Church. "Before we were done we had collected 300 records of observations [of the event]. I think this may be the most observed, and most documented, single meteor event in history. From the Great Lakes to New England, every town that had a newspaper wrote about that meteor. ... So we've got one of America's greatest landscape artists, Frederic Church, watching the meteor from Catskill, and we've got one of America's greatest poets, Walt Whitman, watching the meteor from New York City." The field of forensic astronomy may have gotten its start more than 30 years before, when art historian Roberta Olson argued convincingly that the lifelike comet in Giotto's "Adoration of the Magi" in Padua, Italy, in fact depicted Halley's Comet in its visitation of 1301.
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:37 am Steve Jobs at D: A Master… [Voices]By John Battelle, Blogger, Searchblog …and I mean that. Watching Jobs work his way through nearly 90 minutes of interview and audience questions, I really felt, for the first time, a sense of how strongly the guy feels for his work and his products. Then again, I found myself angry, several times. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:30 am "Scott Pilgrim's" Facebook Blackmail [Voices]By Mary Elizabeth Williams, Writer, Salon.com This is all Betty White’s fault. Just a few months ago, the idea of using social media to give the people what they demand still had an appealingly rough and tumble, grass-roots feel. And when that feisty octogenarian took the stage to host “Saturday Night Live” in May, it looked for a moment like we nerds had a powerful voice. Well, Edgar Wright is here to kill your dreams and crush your revolution, dorks. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:27 am Are Flashy iPad Apps What Publishers Really Need? [Voices]By Mathew Ingram, Contributor, Giga Om Adobe may have been stymied at every turn by Apple (AAPL) and its very public hatred of all things Flash, but that hasn’t stopped the company from pushing its vision of interactive publishing for mobile devices like the iPad. Today, Adobe (ADBE) announced a “digital publishing platform” based on its Creative Suites software that it says will allow any magazine publisher to have a snazzy, interactive app just like the one Wired recently introduced (a preview of which is embedded below). Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:24 am Aggregators, Curators, and Indexers: There’s a Difference, and it Matters [Voices]By C.W. Anderson, Assistant Professor of Media Culture, CUNY Aggregation. Curation. Indexing. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:20 am How The Mainstream Media Stole Our News Story Without Credit [Voices]By Danny Sullivan, blogger, Daggle On Friday, I broke a tasty story about a woman suing Google (GOOG), claiming bad directions caused her to get hit by a vehicle. Today, I discover our story is everywhere, often with no attribution. Come along and watch how the mainstream media, which often claims bloggers rip it off, does a little stealing of its own. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:17 am AT&T tweaks mobile data plans, provides U.S. tethering details (Macworld.com)Macworld.com - AT&T on Wednesday announced significant changes to the company's U.S. wireless data plans that will affect how much iPhone and iPad users pay for mobile Internet access. The company also provided new details about iPhone data tethering for customers in the U.S.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:05 am Adobe, Condé Nast scrambled to get Wired app on Apple's iPad - Apple Insider
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:58 am Woman Sues Google over Bad Directions Update: It Was Dark - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:41 am Is social media sickening us?Like sunscreen being blamed for causing a widespread vitamin D deficiency, now social networks are being blamed because too many people spend too much time indoors. stuff/Connector reports. Dr Aric...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:34 am Data Explosion: Analytics Software Must Adapt or DieIn my previous few articles, I've explored the potential impact of sensors on the Internet. Soon there will be a trillion sensors connected to the Web, which will result in an explosion of online data...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:30 am Why Google TV As A Platform May Push Apple To Build Televisions
Jobs said that the Apple TV is still a hobby because there is a bad “go-to-market” strategy for such devices. In other words, this is basically what I wrote about a month ago: Apple TV will remain a hobby until Apple figures out a way to make money off of it. In the current ecosystem where subsidized cable boxes dominate, that will be very, very hard (just ask TiVo). And Jobs knows it. But in his answer, Jobs may have also made a little mistake. He clumped in Google with the other device makers who had attempted (and failed) to make a successful set top box. The recently announced Google TV is actually not a set top box — it’s a platform. Yes, one Google TV device (made by Logitech) will be a set top box, but Google TV will also be built in to Sony TVs and Blu-ray players starting this Fall. And that may be just the thing Apple needs. “I’m sure smarter people than us will figure this out,” is the way Jobs ended his answer. Those people may be Google. You see, by creating a system that is a platform which is built into TVs and resides on top of your current content, Google may have the perfect hybrid model to shake up the broken industry Jobs is referring to. Jobs thinks someone will have to “tear up the set top box” (amen) to make a viable product, but if Google TV proves to be something consumers want (far from a sure bet at this point), they will have done so without doing that. But at the same time, they’ll be raising peoples’ expectations for what to expect from a television experience — and this could allow Apple to come in and do the tearing up of the box. Recent rumors had Apple hard at work on the next generation Apple TV. The current thought is that this would be a cheaper ($99) device, that relies heavily on cloud-based service. As I wrote last week, the price confuses me because it doesn’t seem to go along with the high-margin products Apple makes all their money selling. So either they’re able to produce these for a really low price (which doesn’t seem too likely) — or they’d do this cheap box to get consumers hooked on their better experience and content, and then shift to more expensive boxes. Given Jobs comments tonight, the latter could well be an option. He’s clearly thought about this a lot (he mentioned they thought about doing a TV product instead of the iPhone — and then instead of the tablet, but there was no good market strategy), and seems frustrated by the current stalemate. But Jobs may have another option. The entire time Jobs was expressing his thoughts about this topic, I kept thinking back to the long-standing rumors that Apple may one day make their own television set. Again, not a box, an actual display. This would eliminate Jobs’ concern about there being too many boxes in the living room. And it would allow him to bypass the cable boxes (which would have to hook in to his unit — which he would undoubtedly control). The main problem with this is that the television hardware business is generally a low-margin one. But then again, so is much of the PC market, and Apple does just fine there. If Apple could come up with some sort of premium television set, people would buy it. Undoubtedly, this Apple television would be slow-going at first as Apple would restrict what types of cable boxes (if any) and/or cable companies you could use with it. But eventually, it could force the industry to conform to its new standard of television much in the way that the mobile industry has been shifting the past few years for the iPhone/App Store. And again, Google TV may be a catalyst to set this all in motion. “No one is willing to buy a set top box,” Jobs said tonight. With a true Apple Television, no one would have to. I can almost hear Jobs now: Apple Television: it’s the best television out there. But it’s also the best web surfing experience from your couch, the best app console in your living room, and the best connected media player in your house.      
Source: TechCrunch | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:28 am Great, Now Even Your Cat Can Send Useless TweetsBy Chris Scott Barr When I stumbled upon the Tweeting Teakettle a couple of months ago, I thought I’d found the worst possible use for Twitter. I love how companies find new ways to prove me wrong...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:16 am Google to release Chrome OS in fourth quarter - NetworkWorld.com
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:06 am Burton Malkiel Goes to GoogleWriter and Princeton academic Burton "Random Walk Down Wall Street" Malkiel drops by Google to give a talk on what we have learned, unlearned, and still have no idea we're talking about with respect to...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:49 am D8 Photos: Dinner and Nightcap Gathering [D8 Conference]After a great session with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, attendees were treated to an outdoor dinner at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes. Following dinner, AOL sponsored the D8 nightcap gathering featuring singer Natasha Bedingfield, who entertained the crowd with an intimate musical set. Here are photos from our conference photographers, Asa Mathat and Lori Makabe.
Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:48 am Summary Box: AT&T's new plans limit data use (AP)AP - THE STICK: AT&T is phasing out the plan that lets wireless customers use unlimited data on the iPhone and other smart phones. Instead it will offer two plans with monthly caps on data usage.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:44 am Readings: Gold, China, Flu, Africa, Uni-tasking, etc.The Shanghai market isn't really predicting anything (Source) Simulating the Spread of Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 Considering the Effect of the First World War (Source) Africa's growth...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:43 am Fat Booth app "supersizes"your faceSpotted on The New York Daily News website, a new iPhone app called FatBooth that gives you an idea what you might look like with a few extra pounds. Silly but fun.Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:41 am D8 Photos: Welcome Reception and Opening Session [D8 Conference]The D8 conference has started! Here are two photo galleries take by our conference photographers, Asa Mathat and Lori Makabe from the registration, welcome reception and the opening session with Rupert Murdoch.
Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:39 am Meeting Knives Set Is The Deadliest Puzzle I've Ever SeenBy Andrew Liszewski While it might look like a brain-bending puzzle, Mia Schmallenbach’s Meeting Knives set actually features a brilliant design allowing four different kitchen knives: a paring knife,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:32 am Soyuz brings space station crew home - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:18 am AT&T caps phone data usage with new wireless plans (AP)AP - In time for the widely expected launch of a new iPhone model, carrier AT&T Inc. is pulling in the reins on data usage by its customers with smart phones and iPads.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:11 am Hybrid Seagate Hard Drive Has Performance IssuesEconolineCrush writes "The launch of Seagate's Momentus XT hard drive was discussed here last week, and for good reason. While not the first hybrid hard drive on the market, the XT is the only one that sheds the Windows ReadyDrive scheme for an OS-independent approach Seagate calls Adaptive Memory. While early coverage of the XT was largely positive, more detailed analysis reveals a number of performance issues, including poor sequential read throughput and an apparent problem with command queuing. In a number of tests, the XT is actually slower than Seagate's year-old Momentus 7200.4, a drive that costs $40 less."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:01 am SocialFlow Wants to Make Sense of the Real TimeWebWhat makes Twitter so special is also what makes it so infuriating. There isn't enough context to the information that is flowing through Twitter. A New York-based start-up, SocialFlow wants to change...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:00 am Daily Crunch: Shelved Edition
Finally, a worthwhile use for all those old National Geographics
Source: CrunchGear | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:00 am Redefining Education…in a Tree House
A few weeks ago I wrote about Web and mobile technology remaking education, but in the middle of the jungle – within a cluster of bamboo buildings nominated for various architectural awards and furnished with hip, mondernist bamboo furniture – I found a place where cleantech was remaking the very concept of a school. The toilets are almost all very comfortable compost toilets, the trash is all recycled with the organic matter going to a school pig slop where Balinese black sows make sure nothing goes to waste. Each grade has a garden that supplies organic food for lunches— including organic cacao in the summer months so the kids can make their own chocolate. The school is even experimenting with different methods of renewable energy including methane-extraction from the compost-toilets and a large water vortex that creates hydro-electric power without the environmental devastation that comes with building a dam. There’s an inflatable classroom with a canvas roof and hip oval-shaped desks for when the weather gets too unbearable, and – why not?—a state of the art mud wrestling pit. As I wait for a Balinese latte at the coffee stand, a mother hen and her chicks peck across the soccer field like something out of a fairy tale. The third-grade’s pizza garden isn’t too far off in the distance, and even farther down the path last year’s tweens learned real-world math by building their own thatched bamboo clubhouse. And, of course, there’s school-wide wifi. Of course all of this green stuff is just be a gimmick if it’s not backed up by high academic standards. To that end, the school runs according to the Cambridge international school standards, combining the benefits of an international school education, with the unique advantages the Green School’s environment offers. Richard Branson was here to check out Green School last week, and before him famous guests included Ben of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, Donna Karen of DKNY and David Copperfield. You can understand why the Vegas illusionist would like a school that seems to have sprung up from nowhere in the middle of the jungle. The everyday students range from poor Balinese kids on a scholarship to the considerably-more-well off kids of a guy like Allard Luchsinger —a multi-time European Internet entrepreneur who decided to take a year off with his family in Bali. Unlike transitions to Los Angeles and San Francisco, his kids were instantly happy here, Luchsinger says. It’s not hard to see why. This seems a school that only a wild-eyed, half-hippy entrepreneur could dream up so I’m not surprised to hear there’s not one, but two, behind it. John Hardy moved to Bali in the mid-1970s and his wife Cynthia moved in the early 1980s. Together, they started a local jewelry business called John Hardy Jewelry that caught on, selling its pieces in high-end chains like Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Neiman Marcus. In 2007, the company sold for undisclosed millions of dollars that go a lot farther when they are converted to Indonesian Rupiahs. (It takes just $100 to be a Rupiah-millionaire.) Spurred by a desire to give back to the island that created their jewelry empire, the couple began dreaming about Green School. They put $5 million of their own money into the school, it opened in September 2008 and today it’s still largely reliant on donors and the Hardys themselves to keep the doors open. (Branson’s check is reportedly in the mail.) Meanwhile, the two have also opened a for-profit venture called PT Bamboo that makes the stunning sustainable bamboo architecture and furniture the showcased at the school. Why should you care about a school in the middle of the jungle? Because that jungle shares the planet with us and Bali hasn’t always had the best track-record of environmental stewardship, having destroyed a good deal of coral with dynamite fishing in years past. Now, Green School is teaching locals a new way to think, plant and build, and is pushing the boundaries of clean-tech innovation that’s also beautiful, functional and comfortable. So frequently, we hear about emerging markets causing environmental problems, but Green School is another example of where an emerging market is creating the solution. More pictures below… 
     
Source: TechCrunch | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:59 am D8 Video: Steve Jobs Holds Out Hope That AT&T Can Fix Its iPhone Problem [D8 Conference]Sometimes it makes sense to ask a simple, direct question. Like this one, from a D8 attendee to Apple CEO Steve Jobs: When can we start making phone calls with our iPhones? Jobs’s answer is meandering but hopeful: Without blaming AT&T (T) by name, he makes it clear the carrier is to blame for poor call quality, not Apple (AAPL). But he suggests that things may get better within a few months. [ See post to watch video ] More Coverage on the Steve Jobs D8 Speaker Page » Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:52 am D8 Video: Steve Jobs on Why Apple TV is a Hobby [D8 Conference]
Today Jobs told us why: Apple (AAPL) has no interest in a market that precludes it from rolling out a viable go-to-market strategy. “The problem with innovation in the TV industry is the go-to-market strategy,” Jobs said. “The TV industry has a subsidized model that gives everyone a set-top box for free. So no one wants to buy a box. Ask TiVo, ask Roku, ask us….ask Google in a few months.” Below, a video of the anecdote. [ See post to watch video ] More Coverage on the Steve Jobs D8 Speaker Page » Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:49 am D8 Video: Steve Jobs on Gizmodo and Missing 4G iPhone [D8 Conference]We’ve heard Gizmodo’s version of the 4G iPhone saga. And we’ve heard the San Mateo County Sheriff’s telling of the tale. Here’s Steve Jobs’ take, which has a couple of different layers: At one point, the Apple (AAPL) CEO makes it clear that this is a police matter, but at another, he makes it clear that he’s quite upset about the whole thing and unwilling to “let it slide.” [ See post to watch video ] More Coverage on the Steve Jobs D8 Speaker Page » Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:45 am Apple's Jobs says iPad idea came before iPhone (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:35 am Zoom H1 Handy Recorder Announced Stereo Mics In A Small PackageBy Andrew Liszewski Just because a recording device fits in your pocket doesn’t mean the sound quality has to suck. And the Zoom line of flash-based audio recorders have been proving that with their...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:34 am Nintendo to cut Japan prices of main DS models (Reuters)Reuters - Japan's Nintendo Co said on Wednesday it will cut the domestic prices of its DS handheld game consoles, slashing the price of one model by a fifth as it seeks to stimulate demand.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:08 am The CEO Performance ReviewBeing a CEO of a company is, as one CEO recently told me with a certain amount of exasperation and exhaustion, "a 24-hour-a-day, 7 days-a-week job." It's all-consuming, all-encompassing, and in many ways...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:55 pm Google sees Chrome OS release in "late fall"TAIPEI (Reuters) - Google expects to release its Chrome computer operating system in the "late fall" of 2010, as it looks to compete with rival Microsoft's Windows, a top executive said on...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:49 pm One Gecko Turns Out to Be Four Different SpeciesA single gecko has just multiplied by four, since scientists have determined "it" actually represents four different species.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:25 pm Nintendo to cut price of some DS models in JapanTOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese game console maker Nintendo Co said on Wednesday that it plans to cut the price of some of its DS handheld game consoles in Japan.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:19 pm China iPhone plant workers to get 30 percent raiseTAIPEI (Reuters) - Production line workers at iPhone maker Foxconn's southern China manufacturing hub will get a 30 percent pay rise, after a string of deaths at the site focused attention...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:58 pm US Falls From Internet Elite, Aims to Catch Iceland, Hungary - BusinessWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:36 pm 'Peak Wood' Offers Parallels For Our TimeHarperdog sends in a piece from Miller McCune looking back at the history of mankind's relationship with virgin timber. Again and again, civilizations have faced a condition of "peak wood," and how they handled it (or failed to) illuminates the current situation with regard to oil. The piece ends with a quote from the 19th-century social scientist and communist theorist Friedrich Engels, who is not generally thought of as an environmental seer: "What did the Spanish planters in Cuba, who burned down the forests on the slopes of the mountains and obtained sufficient fertilizer from the ashes for one generation of highly profitable coffee trees, care that the heavy tropical rains later washed away the now unprotected upper stratum of the soil and left only bare rock behind? ... Let us not flatter ourselves on account of our human victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us. Each victory, it is true, in the first place brings about the results we expected, but in the second and third places it has quite different, unforeseen effects which only too often cancel the first."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:26 pm Facebook Sees Fourfold Jump in Number of Advertisers Since 2009 - BusinessWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:10 pm Trio of New LG Mobile Phones Coming to T-Mobile USASAN DIEGO and BELLEVUE, Wash., June 2 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A., Inc. (LG Mobile Phones) and T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced the upcoming availability of three new phones from LG for T-Mobile customers, a first-time collaboration between the two companies.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:01 pm Help a gamer find an elusive Tetris knockoff.On September 10, 2001, Akira began searching for one of the hundreds of Tetris knockoffs that graced the 16-bit Commodore Amiga in the 1980s. Or, rather, he began the public search: he'd already tested and discounted a few dozen before appealing for help. The 23-page forum thread--and the hunt--continues to this day, despite Akira's offer of a cash bounty; his or her most recent post was just a few weeks ago. He seems dejected: "It was the best Tetris port to any system. Second place is for Gameboy Tetris and third is for Tengen Tetris on the NES. [But] I have no will to invest this much energy in a stinking game. Looking around for disks and stuff ... May it be lost forever!" Looking for this Tetris game fer years! Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:00 pm Equation: Want to Cut Carbon Emissions? Get a Handle on the VariablesWe need a zero-carbon energy source. In the meantime, this formula for computing the total CO2 emissions caused by humans -- and where it comes from -- will help us dramatically cut energy use.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:00 pm Local Marketing Agency Delivers 'Priceless' Marketing Solution for Denver Energy CompanySource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:00 pm June 2, 1954: Airplane Takes Off, Lands VerticallyThe VTOL makes a successful test flight. Turns out to be more bother than it's worth.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:00 pm Prototype: Meet the Mother of All F/X DinosaursAnimation genius Winsor McCay stuns WWI-era audiences with a tree-devouring, interactive Diplodocus named Gertie and sets the ball rolling for today's jaw-dropping special effects.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:00 pm Study shows Wikipedia is accurate, take that paranoid teachers
However a study at the University of Pittsburgh actually proves the paranoia wrong. Based on cancer information from an oncology textbook, the study when on a search to find any inaccuracies in the information on Wikipedia and while they were at it, the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query (PDQ). Here is what they concluded:
The only real downside to Wikipedia, was its lack of readability, which in turn reflects the skepticism that one might have about the validity of the information. Read [LiveScience] Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 1 Jun 2010 | 9:49 pm Lemnis Lighting Expands Operations to ChinaSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jun 2010 | 9:49 pm Alien taxidermy throw-rug From the fevered imaginations of the Bob Basset leatherworking group in the Ukraine comes this piece, simply entitled "Alien Taxidermy." Now that's a throw-rug! Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jun 2010 | 9:35 pm Russian Soyuz returns from space station missionKOROLYOV, Russia (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three astronauts on board landed on the steppe of Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Russia's Mission Control said.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jun 2010 | 9:35 pm Commodore knocks off the Eee keyboard, calls it the “Invictus”
Here are the only specs available, as whispered by this forum jockey:
Invictus, though? That’s a bit of a pretentious name for a knockoff. Why not the Ameeegaboard? I like Ameeegaboard. “A few weeks” is the announcement estimate. Just weird as hell. Invictus?!
Source: CrunchGear | 1 Jun 2010 | 9:21 pm Steve Jobs on the new iPhone and how "it began with the tablet" at the D8 Conference (Appolicious)Appolicious - Less than one week before formally debuting Apple's new iPhone at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs opened up about apps, the future of media, and what to expect from the iPad, iPhone and other Apple devices during the 8th Annual All Things Digital Conference.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Jun 2010 | 9:16 pm Apple May Sell 10 Million iPads in 2010 After All - eWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 1 Jun 2010 | 9:03 pm New Asus mobo has an integrated discrete GPU
If you’re wondering why people didn’t do this before, it’s because this is going to make the motherboard pretty expensive. A 5770 goes for at least $150, and even if you take into account the lack of PCB and PCI interface, it’s still going to cost a pretty penny. This is for moneyed enthusiasts only — and even they may not buy, since they may prefer a more traditional approach to SLI. My question is this: if the benefit is allowing the integrated and PCI-E GPUs to run in SLI, why even bother having a serious GPU there? Anything will do, really, and give a decent little performance boost due to increased memory channels and such. I don’t know, maybe I’m missing something here. The Asus mobo is still a prototype right now, though, so I suspect they’re working out the best price/performance combo. Head over to PC Perspective for a video of the mobo in question.
Source: CrunchGear | 1 Jun 2010 | 9:00 pm Videocon Telecommunications Limited Launches Advanced Mobile Data Services Powered by AcisionNEW DELHI, June 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- - Acision Deploys Advanced Messaging, Mobile Broadband and Charging Solutions at Videocon GSM Mobile Services Acision, a world leader in mobile data, today announces that Videocon Telecommunications Limited, the newest entrant in the Indian mobile market, has selected Acision's mobile data solutions in order to provide the most innovative, highest-quality mobile services to users in the region.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jun 2010 | 9:00 pm Videocon Telecommunications Limited Launches Advanced Mobile Data Services Powered by AcisionSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jun 2010 | 9:00 pm Steve Jobs Both Smacks And Kisses AT&T
When Walt Mossberg asked Jobs how AT&T was doing on the network side of things, Jobs at first said AT&T was doing “pretty good.” But then quickly noted that “they have some issues.” But Jobs said that the other carriers would have likely had the same issues had you put the iPhone on any one of their networks (which is a great argument for why it should be on more than one network). Jobs then noted that AT&T was making improvements to the network, but then said he wish they were improving faster. When asked if there would be an advantage putting the iPhone on two carriers, Jobs acknowledged that “there might be.” Asked if that would happen in the near future, Jobs said he couldn’t comment on that. But earlier Jobs noted that they meet with AT&T once a quarter, so the fact that this wasn’t a firm “no” or something implying that, is interesting — or maybe that’s just my wishful thinking. “AT&T took a big leap for us,” Jobs said in mentioning that they weren’t sure if they’d be able to break into the phone market at all when they first set out. The big question remains: was it a big enough leap to justify another year of exclusivity? The subject of AT&T came up again later in the Q&A session. One person asked what Apple is doing to ensure you can actually make a call on their phone on AT&T’s network. Jobs said Apple was talking about it with AT&T and gave a fairly technical answer for what they’re attempting to do (involving increasing the backhaul). Interestingly, Jobs noted that, “things get worse before they get better.” He then continued, “If you believe that, things should be getting a lot better soon!” To which the audience burst into laughter. Jobs came back to say that he’s been told a lot of places are supposed to get better by the end of the Summer. When asked what happens if they don’t, Jobs cryptically replied, “then they won’t.” [photo: Engadget]      
Source: TechCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 8:46 pm Washington Wants 10,000 Web Surferscrimeandpunishment writes "This one sounds too good to be true: surf the Web, and you'll be helping the government. The FCC is looking for 10,000 volunteers to take part in a study to determine if broadband providers are really providing Internet connections that are as fast as advertised. The broad look at broadband will involve special equipment installed in homes across the country to measure Internet connections and compare them to advertised speeds." Here's where to go to apply.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 1 Jun 2010 | 8:38 pm Borders to begin selling Aluretek Libre Pro for $120Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks
The ebook reader, like Border’s other device, the Kobo eReader, will be available on July 2. The book seller’s ebook store will presumably be available around the same time. The Libre Pro isn’t exactly the the nicest looking ebook reader out there. It looks like a cheap knock-off of the Sony Reader, though Borders is claiming the device has good build quality. Like the Kobo, the Aluratek Libre won’t have a wireless radio inside, instead it will take books through syncing to either a PC or Mac. It will support ePub, PDF and MP3 for music playback. The screen is 5-inches like most other e-readers and is said to run for 24 hours on a single charge. To help make the Aluratek Libre eBook Reader Pro more desirable, Borders is throwing in 100 free classic books with the reader. By “classics” Borders likely means “public domain” books. While the device isn’t exactly the best looking device, nor the most fully featured, it does look to be a step in the right direction. Borders can really help get ebooks into the hands of many other people with cheaper readers. Having to sync it with a computer to read the books may prove difficult for some, but the price could persuade them to learn how to do it. The retailer has already seen success with it’s Kobo reader, selling out of the first run, which could bode well for the Aluratek Libre Pro. Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 1 Jun 2010 | 8:32 pm Steve Jobs On Google’s Android Betrayal: “My Sex Life Is Pretty Good”
In one exchange, Mossberg asked Jobs whether he felt betrayed by Eric Schmidt and Google. Jobs’ non-sequitur response: “My sex life is pretty good”. Obviously it’s a sore subject (or at least one without a good PR-friendly response). When Mossberg asked about the competition, Jobs noted that it was Google that decided to compete with Apple — Apple didn’t decide it was moving into the search business (he reportedly made similar statements at an internal all-hands meeting earlier this year). Regarding ChromeOS, Jobs pointed out that Google was building off of the open-source WebKit engine, which Apple created. Asked if Apple would be removing Google from the iPhone, Jobs responded that it wouldn’t. Here’s his extended followup response, explaining that Jobs thinks that the market will dictate who wins (and will presumably choose Apple over Google), taken from Engadget’s live notes:
Image via Engadget
     
Source: TechCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 8:12 pm Apple CEO Jobs says Foxconn "not a sweatshop"RANCHO PALOS VERDES, California (Reuters) - Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs said on Tuesday Foxconn, the global contract manufacturer that assembles the company's iPhones and iPads in...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jun 2010 | 8:07 pm Steve Jobs: People Are Voting Against Flash By Buying An iPad Every 3 Seconds
Jobs said that many technologies live in cycles — they have a Summer, and then go to the grave. Apple likes to choose technologies that are just in their Spring time, Jobs noted. Of course, he’s implying that Flash is not one of those technologies. And that instead, it too will soon be in the grave. And Jobs said that this removal of Flash was simply the latest in a series of moves Apple has always taken to stay ahead of the curve. They got rid of the 3.5″ floppy, for example, despite making it popular in the first place. They also got rid of serial and parallel ports before the rest of the industry in favor of USB. And then with the MacBook Air, they got rid of optical drives. “When we do this, sometimes people call us crazy,” Jobs noted. “Sometimes you have to pick the right horses. Flash looks like it had its day but it’s waning. And HTML5 looks like it’s coming up,” Jobs said. Jobs then reiterated that no mobile phones are yet shipping with Flash. When Walt Mossberg said that soon they would be, Jobs quipped that they’ve been hearing that same thing for two or three years. When Mossberg brought up the “holes” in the Internet without Flash, Jobs said those were quickly being filled — and that most of those were just ads anyway. Jobs said that Adobe had a chance to get Flash on their devices, but came up short. So they’ve moved on. Jobs did say that if the market tells them they’re making bad choices, they’ll change. But so far, that isn’t happening. “People seem to be liking the iPad,” Jobs said to laughs and applause. “We’ve sold one every three seconds since we launched it,” he added.      
Source: TechCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 8:00 pm Mobile Social Entertainment Service mig33 Again Broadens Its Reach, Delivering New Mobile and Web Access to New Consumers and MarketsSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jun 2010 | 8:00 pm Cat@Log allows cats to tweet, signals end times
As Nicholas likes to say: Come on, meteor. The device, which is preliminarily named Cat@Log, contains a GPS sensor, an accelerometer, and a camera. It records constantly and currently has a vocabulary of 11 tweets it can fire off when an action or series of actions is performed. For instance, as Tech-On notes, if the cat walks around for a while and then eats, it can tweet “Meals taste better after a walk >:3″ — I added the little cat face in there, which should probably be in every cat tweet, but you get the idea.
Although they say they were careful to reduce the size of the device, it still looks pretty damn bulky. Cats probably won’t appreciate it. And that exposed PCB isn’t going to survive long in the water dish. I like how the caption at Tech-On tells you that this is a fake cat. Just in case you weren’t sure!
Source: CrunchGear | 1 Jun 2010 | 7:40 pm Internet Explorer 8 Gains at Expense of Chrome and Firefox (PC World)PC World - The results are out from the latest Net Applications survey of Web browser market share, and Google continues to capture market share and headlines with its Chrome Web browser. Drilling down into the stats, though, and looking behind the curtain reveals that real winner in the market share department is Internet Explorer 8.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Jun 2010 | 7:31 pm Apple Cracking Down On Widgety and Desktop-y iPad Apps If you thought you could handle the iPad because there will be apps that truly customize the interface, I laugh in your general direction. No, wait, Steve Jobs does. I'm reminded of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in which that lady keeps adding rules and pronouncements to the wall, hemming in the Hogwarts population bit by bit, and punishing transgressors with a magic quill. Apple doesn't have a magic quill (yet... iPain?), but it does get to veto apps for a growing number of semi-obscure reasons, and the latest one is "apps that create their own desktops."
Source: TechCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 7:28 pm AT&T planning to announce some new Android phones during WWDC?Section: Apple, Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Trade Shows, WWDC  At WWDC on June 7, it’s safe to say Apple will be announcing a new iPhone possibly in the flavor of the iPhone 4G. Instead of giving the whole day to Apple, AT&T might actually announce some new Android phones on June 7, which could steal some thunder from mighty Steve Jobs. Apparently, one prospective phone is the HTC Aria which is a slimmed down Android phone, but it still has some core features such as 2.8 inch touch screen, Android 2.1 OS, 5MP camera, and the HTC Sense UI. As of now, there are only a few spy shots circulating the web of the HTC Aria, nothing official in terms of a price or specific launch date. However, rumor has it that the HTC Aria will be announced on June 7 by AT&T. In addition, AT&T could announce the Samsung i897 (Captivate) and the Dell Streak. June 7 should be a pretty good day for AT&T fans because at the worst, they will receive the opportunity to purchase the latest iPhone, and at the best, they will have some more Android phones to choose from. Via [Fortune] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 1 Jun 2010 | 7:22 pm Steve Jobs is going to say something at D8 tonight
UPDATE – Engadget has some nice coverage as well. Steve on Flash: “Sometimes you have to pick the right horses. Flash looks like it had its day but it’s waning, and HTML5 looks like it’s coming up.” OOF – Walt: We don’t know the whole story… I wanted to ask you about the duality to this. Some people don’t approve of checkbook journalism. If what we know is true, but on the other hand the police go and don’t issue a search warrant, and they grab someone’s computer — there’s a lot of stuff, at least with my computer I wouldn’t want anyone to have, and they grab this journalists assets… Steve: Well a guy… who can say if he’s a journalist. On Siri purchase: Steve: They’re not a search company. They’re an AI company. We have no plans to go into the search business. We don’t care about it — other people do it well. Are there advantages of having two carriers in the US? BOOM. Steve: There might be. The future is long.
Source: CrunchGear | 1 Jun 2010 | 7:16 pm Android Rootkit Is Just a Phone Call Away (PC World)PC World - Hoping to understand what a new generation of mobile malware could resemble, security researchers will demonstrate a malicious "rootkit" program they've written for Google's Android phone next month at the Defcon hacking conference in Las Vegas.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Jun 2010 | 7:10 pm Innocomm Delivers First Android 3.5G Smartphone with Telegent Mobile TVTAIPEI, Taiwan, June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- At Computex Taipei 2010 today, Telegent Systems, the company that makes television mobile, and Innocomm, a Taiwan-based provider of broadband wireless solutions, announced the introduction of the first 3.5G touchscreen smartphone based on the Android operating system to incorporate Telegent mobile TV technology.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jun 2010 | 7:00 pm Innocomm Delivers First Android 3.5G Smartphone with Telegent Mobile TVSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jun 2010 | 7:00 pm Wikileaks Was Launched With Intercepts From TorThe New Yorker is featuring a long and detailed profile of Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks. From this Wired's Threat Level pulls out one salient detail: that Wikileaks' initial scoop came from documents intercepted from Tor exit routers. The eavesdropping was pulled off by a Wikileaks activist — neither the New Yorker nor Wired knows who or even in what country he or she resides. "The siphoned documents, supposedly stolen by Chinese hackers or spies who were using the Tor network to transmit the data, were the basis for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's assertion in 2006 that his organization had already 'received over one million documents from 13 countries' before his site was launched ..." Update: 06/02 06:31 GMT by T : In reaction to the Wired story, and the New Yorker story on which it drew, Andrew Lewman of the Tor Project points to this explanation / reminder of what Tor's software actually does and does not do. Relevant to the claims reported above, it reads in part "We hear from the Wikileaks folks that the premise behind these news articles is actually false -- they didn't bootstrap Wikileaks by monitoring the Tor network. But that's not the point. The point is that users who want to be safe need to be encrypting their traffic, whether they're using Tor or not." This flat denial of the assertion that Wikileaks was bootstrapped with documents sniffed from the Tor network is repeated unambiguously in correspondence from Wikileaks volunteers.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:53 pm New 'Doubly Magic' Research Reveals Role Of Nuclear ShellResearchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the University of Tennessee (UT) and six collaborating universities have performed an unprecedented nuclear reaction experiment that explores the unique properties of the "doubly magic" radioactive isotope of 132Sn, or tin-132.The research, published in the journal Nature, is part of a broad scientific effort to understand nucleosynthesis, or the process by which the higher elements (those in the periodic table above iron) are created in the supernova explosions of stars.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:50 pm Uncovering The Mystery Of A Major Threat To WheatAgricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have solved a longstanding mystery as to why a pathogen that threatens the world's wheat supply can be so adaptable, diverse and virulent.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:39 pm Fashion Designer Miriam J Splane Launches e-Commerce WebsiteSAN DIEGO, June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- A talented and award-winning designer, Miriam J Splane, launches her couture fashion designs online at www.miriamj.com.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:36 pm Apple cracking down on widgety and desktop-y iPad apps
Apparently apps were expanding the UI a bit too much, resulting in a whole dangerous new world where things weren’t aligned on the Apple grid, and non-canon fonts were displaying things in foreign corners of the screen. The horror! The news comes by way of one Australian developer whose photo frame app, MyFrame, was rejected for being too desktop-y, presumably because it allowed you to add a sticky and see social media updates in non-Apple ways. Apple doesn’t want widgets or widget-esque apps either now — which is too bad, since as far as I’m concerned, the whole damn thing should have been designed around widgets to begin with. I’m telling you: as soon as these restrictions reach critical mass, customers are going to blow up, and (I swear I just made this up) once you go hack, you never go back. Ironically, the same developer wrote a defense of Apple’s iron-fisted content management tactics just a month ago. It seems his sympathies may have shifted somewhat over the last few weeks. [via The Register]
Source: CrunchGear | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:30 pm Copper Nanowires Enable Bendable Displays And Solar CellsA team of Duke University chemists has perfected a simple way to make tiny copper nanowires in quantity.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:24 pm Dolphin uses iPad as way to communicate with humansMichael Leddy of Orange Crate Art came across this press release about a dolphin named Merlin who uses an iPad.Dolphin enjoys using the iPad Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:21 pm Former App Store King iFart Gets Blocked From The iPad
iFart isn’t the first application to be hit by this arbitrary rule — we’ve previously written about apps like QuackPhone, which made your iPhone sound like a duck, and was rejected on similar grounds. But iFart isn’t some unknown application. In fact, it sold 100,000 copies in its first 14 days (reaching #1 on the App Store), once ranked in the top twenty iPhone applications of all time, and has over 20,000 reviews to date. Joel Comm, CEO of iFart’s developer InfoMedia, says that it took a month of waiting before he got ahold of an Apple representative, who told Comm that he’d have to add quite a lot of functionality to the application to have it approved for the iPad — sound boards, even well-known ones, don’t cut it. Comm has been through this before. When the App Store first launched Apple was routinely blocking applications like iFart and Pull My Finger, until it finally opened the floodgates to these ‘joke’ applications in December 2008. This time though, the application isn’t being blocked on the grounds of profanity or crudeness. Rather, it’s a lack of functionality, which is harder to change. The only consolation is that Comm can add a landscape mode to the existing iPhone app, but it wouldn’t be a native HD version. Comm points out the inconsistency of the App Store review process, noting that similarly themed apps like Farting Zombies have made it onto the iPad. Of course, such inconsistencies on the App Store are nothing new, but that doesn’t make them any less frustrating for developers. Comm also points out that InfoMedia isn’t just developing so-called ‘crapps’: its application GameDock was among the first multiplayer gaming platforms on the iPhone, and iVote has gained popularity as a polling app. If nothing else, this makes it clear that Apple is looking to keep the bar higher for the iPad than it did for the iPhone. There’s no way to know if Apple intends to eventually lower it, but my hunch is that Apple wants the iPad to be viewed as a full-fledged computing platform rather than a device with big-screen joke apps. Comm shares a similar sentiment — he thinks that Apple is afraid that approving fart apps would lead to an influx of ‘novelty’ applications for the iPad. So it may be awhile, if ever, before you get to experience iFart HD in its full glory (or lack thereof). Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:20 pm Tortoise/shoe sexIf this is not a viral ad for Crocs, it should be. (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!) Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:14 pm Despite Efforts, Not All Latino Immigrants Accepted As ‘White’While some Latino immigrants to the United States may be accepted as “white” by the wider society, a new study finds that many of them face discrimination based on skin color.In fact, the research showed that relatively darker-skinned Latinos earned less than their lighter-skinned counterparts.The results suggest that the rapid influx of Latino immigrants will shift the boundaries of race in the United States, but will not end skin-color-based discrimination.“It is likely we will see change in our racial categories, but there will not be one uniform racial boundary around all Latinos,” said Reanne Frank, co-author of the study and assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State University.“Some Latinos will be successful in the bid to be accepted as ‘white’ – usually those with lighter skin.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:10 pm Pixel Qi battles sunlight much better than the iPad The iPad is notoriously known for its glossy screen. It does have its advantages over the matte alternatives, but viewing in sunlight is not one of them. That is where Pixel Qi comes in.
Now I don’t know about you, but my Macbook and iPad are incredibly annoying to try and use in the sunlight. If Apple had a Pixel Qi alternative to the screen, I would jump on the Qi screen. Via [Gizmodo]
Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:10 pm Aging Baby Boomers Will Have To InnovateHaving fewer children, they will be counting on an extended family and nontraditional networksAs their autonomy fades, tomorrow's elderly will need to create non-traditional support networks or pay for the care they receive.This is the conclusion of Jacques Légaré, professor at the Université de Montréal, who studies aging baby-boomers, a generation for whom children are relatively rare and stable couples almost an exception.In a paper presented at the 2010 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, held this week at Concordia University in Montreal, Mr.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:07 pm Classic Grammar Model Can Be Used For Computerized ParsingA classic Nordic grammar model can be used for computerised grammatical analyses and technical applications of modern Swedish text, shows a new thesis in the field of language technology from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:04 pm Acceptance, Social Support, And Educational Access Provide Safety Net For Former Child SoldiersThe Child Soldiers Global Report 20081 estimates that more than 300,000 children are engaged as soldiers around the globe, and more children are recruited every year in ongoing and new conflicts.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:00 pm Graffiti Artist's Sticker Alarms DHSA trash can at a Washington, D.C., airport apparently depicts a suicide bomber and raises concerns among security personnel. It's actually the logo of a popular graffiti artist whose fans tack the stickers on surfaces all over the world.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 5:30 pm Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson Plan High Frequency Concert for DogsLou Reed and his composer wife, Laurie Anderson, are planning a high-frequency concert for dogs.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 5:26 pm CSIRO Sues US Carriers Over Wi-Fi PatentAn anonymous reader notes that CSIRO has sued Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile in — wait for it — East Texas District Court. "Australia's peak science body stands to reap more than $1 billion from its lucrative Wi-Fi patent after already netting about $250 million from the world's biggest technology companies, an intellectual property lawyer says. The CSIRO has spent years battling 14 technology giants including Dell, HP, Microsoft, Intel, Nintendo, and Toshiba for royalties and made a major breakthrough in April last year when the companies opted to avoid a jury hearing and settle for an estimated $250 million. Now, the organization is bringing the fight to the top three US mobile carriers in a new suit targeting Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile. It argues they have been selling devices that infringe its patents."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 1 Jun 2010 | 5:09 pm Opera is officially faster than a potatoSection: Web, Web Browsers  In response to Chrome’s speed test, some of the lads over at the Opera team decided to make a satirical test of their own pitting Opera’s loading speeds against the time it takes to cook a potato. While Opera’s pockets aren’t nearly as deep as Google’s, they can still remain lighthearted in the face of an overwhelming competitor. Although the video is created in jest, you can still see that the web page loads long before the potatoes fall into the pot. In some sense, this shoddily made video actually portrays the browser’s speed quite well. While Opera commands only 2.2 percent of the internet browser market as of May 2010, it is still one of the better browsers out there and can actually go toe-to-toe with Chrome in terms of speed, features and overall quality. Via [DownloadSquad] Full Story » | Written by Tarun Kunwar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 1 Jun 2010 | 5:04 pm Finally, a worthwhile use for all those old National Geographics
The creator of this charming little item is one Sean Miller, a Seattleite like me — and a more creative one, for that matter. He soaked the whole stack in a water/starch mixture and then put it under pressure so it’d dry solid, and then carved out the bookcase portion with a bandsaw. I’m not sure I’d trust it to hold too many books, but it sure is a beautiful and unique piece of work. [via Inhabitat, Make, and Neatorama]
Source: CrunchGear | 1 Jun 2010 | 5:00 pm Exar Demonstrates Programmable Power, Interface Solutions at IC Expo in ChinaFREMONT, Calif., June 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Exar Corporation (Nasdaq: EXAR) will demonstrate its programmable power -- PowerXR and Interface solutions at the China IC Expo tradeshow to be held in Shenzhen, at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center, Wednesday, June 2, 2010 through Thursday, June 3, 2010 at Booth #6106 .Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jun 2010 | 5:00 pm Elusive Neutrino Change-Up Finally DetectedIn a literally transformative event, physicists find direct evidence that a neutrino morphs from one type into another. The finding provides additional support for the notion that neutrinos have mass, and that requires an explanation beyond the standard model of particle physics.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 4:54 pm Gilt CEO: How Gilt Will Go LocalGilt is closing in on Groupon’s turf. In April, Gilt quietly launched a beta version of “Gilt City,” a local deals service that offered a set of weekly deals for New York. Although City remains in beta mode and is only available to approximately one-third of Gilt’s NY membership, the well-funded company is preparing for an official launch in 15 to 20 U.S. markets. Nothing is finalized yet, Gilt’s CEO Susan Lyne says in our video interview, but “City” is expected to be a significant pillar in the company’s growing portfolio, which now includes flash sales for women, children and men’s fashion, travel and home. While Groupon clones are rushing into the game, Lyne is approaching the local deal business carefully, she’s using the beta version of City to gauge customer demand and find an appropriate model. City currently displays 5 vendors a week, with each offering one or several deal packages— for example a Yoga studio might offer a discounted 5-class package and a discounted monthly pass. That differs from Groupon, which only showcases one main deal per day, per location (there are small side offers but they don’t get equal billing). While Groupon’s CEO Andew Mason has adamantly defended their one-deal-a-day model, Lyne says she is willing to scale up if there is sufficient demand. Lyne acknowledges the similarities between Groupon and City, and the fact that Groupon may occasionally offer comparable deals, but she argues that Gilt’s editorial voice will remain distinct by consistently offering higher end services/goods. So far the NY experiment is going well, performance has exceeded expectations and Gilt will open the site to the rest of its NY members within the next few weeks. “Assuming that we continue to see the kind of engagement and excitement from our NY members, we’ll roll it out pretty quickly across the country,” Lyne says. As I mentioned, the company is looking at roughly 15 to 20 markets for City’s national roll out. Every market in this target group has at least 30,000 members, with some cities (like New York) obviously carrying far more. Although the larger expansion is at least months away, Lyne is already thinking about City’s next step. After we wrapped up the video portion of our interview, she mentioned her interest in a hyper local site, a “City” that focuses on key neighborhoods within a metropolitan area (Lyne mentioned Park Slope as an example). Groupon is also trying to get closer to its users, in April, Groupon’s Mason announced plans to launch sites for major suburbs and possibly split larger cities into subareas. Gilt’s City has a long way to go before it catches up to the king of the local deal domain, or even its rivals, like LivingSocial. Groupon recently raised $135 million, putting its valuation well above the billion mark. However, even in its infancy, City is already a credible threat thanks to the Gilt engine and its huge user base. Gilt has a stunning war chest, with revenues on track to hit $450 million this year and don’t forget that $83 million in funding (just this month the company raised $35 million). Lyne did not disclose how much City has made so far, but she did provide one key example. Before City, Gilt experimented with the local deal by offering a discounted spa package (that was available in roughly 5-6 cities)— within 36 hours Gilt pulled in nearly half a million in revenues. Not a bad start. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 4:45 pm Firefox Takes First Steps Into 64-Bit TerritoryThe next major Firefox release will ship with support for 64-bit computers and operating systems, Mozilla says.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 4:36 pm Zoom H1 audio recorder: tiny and attractive
I noted in my Canon T2i review that sound was (as it is on all DSLRs) pretty crappy. A pinhole mic recording in mono is a poor complement to the high-quality 1080p video; Zoom suggests using one of these suckers as your movie-making audio device, and I concur. As long as you can sync it correctly (just use the audio input, dummy) it could make for quite the mobile studio. It records HQ audio (24-bit/96KHz, WAV or MP3) to MicroSD, and runs on a AA. I would say that I prefer an internal battery, but the fact is when you’re recording a show or talk, you don’t have the option of plugging the sucker in. The best part is it’s only $99. That’s a pretty good deal, if you ask me.
Source: CrunchGear | 1 Jun 2010 | 4:31 pm Rumor of Betelgeuse's Death Greatly ExaggeratedThe Bad Astronomer writes "A rumor is spreading on the Net like wildfire that the red supergiant star Betelgeuse is about to explode in a supernova. This rumor is almost certainly not true. First, it's posted on a doomsday forum. Second, it's three times removed from the source, and is anonymous at each step. Third, the evidence is shaky at best. Plus, even if true, the supernova is too far away to hurt us. But other than that ..."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 1 Jun 2010 | 4:30 pm ComiXology Brings A Flashy Comics Reader To The Web
With the advent of the iPad, the digital age of comics may finally be blossoming. The iPad as a reading device works best with visual media such as graphic novels and standard comic books. One of the best early apps on the iPad, for instance, is the Marvel Comics reader, which was developed by ComiXology, which also offers a general comics reader app for both the iPad and the iPhone with 1,700 titles across different publishers. Now ComiXology is bringing that reading experience to the Web with a browser-based reader in beta. (Existing ComiXology users can sign in, others can sign up for an account). The Web reader lets you zoom into each panel and click arrow buttons to go to the next one. Or you can look at the whole page. It is not as satisfying as swiping with your fingers on an iPad, but it does the job if you are on your computer. If you’ve purchased comics in the iPhone or iPad apps, they are available in your library in the Web reader. There are also some freebie comics you can check out. Unfortunately, the app is in Flash, which makes it look good, but also slows it down. There is some waiting around for the Flash circles to do their thing. But for heavy graphics apps, Flash is still the default. A competing comics app, Graphic.ly, is also available only in Flash via a nice-looking AIR app. If ComiXology made an HTML5 app, it wouldn’t have to have a separate iPad app, but maybe HTML5 isn’t quite ready for full-on comics just yet. Another thing ComiXology lacks are any social features beyond ratings. Graphic.ly, in contrast, lets you follow other readers and comment directly on pages and panels. The homepage is a stream of comics-related activities which is supposed to help you discover and read new comics. ComiXology takes more of a the classic loner approach to reading comics and brings it online.
     
Source: TechCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 4:26 pm A Couple Websites Battle To Be Mayor Of Foursquare Mayor Battles
Be The Mayor is a simple site to show you what you’re up against in terms of becoming the mayor of a specific venue. You enter in the name of a venue (and the city it is in) to search for it, and you’ll be taken to a page that shows you the current mayor and highlights how many more check-ins you’ll need to topple them. There’s also a handy bookmarklet you can use to give you easy access to this data from any Foursquare venue page. When Will I Be Mayor? is a bit more robust. It asks you to connect your Foursquare account via OAuth, and then shows you a list of your most recent check-ins. From this list, you can see who the current mayor of those venues is. And below that, it also shows you how many more check-ins it will require for you to become mayor there. But with When Will I Be Mayor, you can mark certain spots to be monitored so you can check back to see how you’re doing in pursuit of the mayorship. And you can sort venues by most and fewest number of check-ins (by you). For those who have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about, in order to become the mayor of a venue in Foursquare, you have to have the most check-ins (over two) at a venue over the past 60 days (there are a few other elements to it, but that’s basically it). While mayorships are a matter of pride amongst some, increasingly, they’re also about getting you good deals at venues you frequent. When Will I Be Mayor is the work of developer Greg Avola while Be The Mayor is the work of The Barbarian Group.
Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 4:24 pm Google now plotting WiFi networks, on purpose? At what point does too much data actually become too much data? If you are Google there is no such thing. Since the announcement in May of 2007, an entire fleet of specially rigged Google camera cars have been cruising the streets of America digitally mapping city by city and block by block. Within a year they had built a fleet in Europe to begin accomplishing the same task. However last month Germany coincidentally requested what type of data Google had recently gathered causing a spill the beans response:
As with any data gathering operation the proper authorities must see just-cause behind your behavior or there may will need fast-talking explanation and the German authorities acted no different. This is not the first time Google has run into privacy issues as several cities in the states have protested and won against their mapping efforts. However there is a process to get your block removed but the steps appear to be as arduous as deleting your Facebook account. With the latest discovery, all the more reason to secure your home or offices private networks, you never know who’s out wardriving. Read [telegraph.co.uk] Full Story » | Written by Aaron Thacker for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:56 pm Win Windup Girl, Read About Bioengineered Sex SlaveThe much lauded sci-fi novel The Windup Girl is out in trade paperback, and Wired.com is giving away five free copies to readers who want to know why Time named it one of 2009's best novels.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:55 pm Please join us in welcoming Josephine Ann
Congrats to Scott and his lovely wife! UPDATE – Scott did not in fact “give birth.” His wife did. Thanks for the correction, Tad!
Source: CrunchGear | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:43 pm Real life version of Minority Report's user interfaceAt TED2010, John Underkoffler gave a demo of his remarkable g-speak user interface. He was the science advisor for Minority Report. Remember the data interface from Minority Report? Well, it's real, John Underkoffler invented it -- as a point-and-touch interface called g-speak -- and it's about to change the way we interact with data.John Underkoffler points to the future of UI Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:38 pm Funny anti-parkour sign Ryan sez, "I was taking my kids to a public park in Winter Park, FL this weekend. I noticed this sign stating 'No Par Core'. I made sure my kids didn't jump over any of the tires or backflip off of the swings." Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:37 pm Core Services Offers Fixed Fee Proof of Concept for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise EditionSOMERSET, N.J., June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Core Services Corporation ("Core Services"), an Oracle Platinum Partner, launched an exciting and innovative service this week, which enables Oracle clients to acquire critical insight into how Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition ("OBI EE") will empower their decision-makers. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091130/NY17702LOGO ) "Using Core Services' OBI EE Proof of Concept, Oracle users will gain first-hand knowledge as to how Oracle's Business Intelligence ("BI") platform will leverage the investment already made in their existing data sources by unleashing the value within that data," says Ernesto Espinoza, Core Services' National Oracle Business Intelligence Practice Director.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:34 pm Study: Wikipedia actually pretty accurate (so calm down)
What’s the best site on the Web these days? Wikipedia, correct. Haters will hate, of course, pointing to this or that error, or highlighting high-profile compilations, but the spirit of the site endures: free and open information for all. Now a study has been published that says, you know what, on the whole, the information on Wikipedia isn’t any less accurate than you’ll find elsewhere. Does this mean, when writing a paper for you 12th grade history class, that you should ever have the site in your bibliography? No. No it does not. But to use the site as a stepping stone for further research? Absolutely, yes. The study, carried out by researchers at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, says that the site is about as accurate as any published article you find in a peer-reviewed journal. The study specifically looked at Wikipedia pages on about cancer. The information turned out to be totally accurate, if only a little difficult to read. USA Today’s editors aren’t in charge of the site: the Wikipedia articles were said to be at a college-level reading level rather than a 9th grade reading level (found on PDQ, a professionally peer-reviewed Web site) That difference is due to the very nature Wikis: you’ve got a number of different people editing pages simultaneously, so naturally there chaos. Whether you can extrapolate this information to other areas of the site, particularly those dealing with current events—you’ll notice that the page on the Gaza flotilla raid is semi-protected—I don’t know. It does, however, put to rest the idea that OMG WIKIPEDIA EVIL~!, an opinion usually put forward by someone who doesn’t know the difference between a Web browser and a driver.
Source: CrunchGear | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:30 pm Asus, MSI Tablets Lead the Charge Against the iPad
Apple is set to face some competition as Taiwanese PC makers get their iPad challengers ready. Companies such as Asus and MSI are showing Android- and Windows-based tablets that they say will be cheaper than the iPad. At the ongoing Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, Asus announced its first tablet, called the Eee Pad. The Eee Pad has a 12-inch touchscreen display and is a “full-featured slate computer that serves as a multimedia player, e-reader, compact PC and internet device,” says the company. The Eee Pad has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and Windows 7 operating system. The company offers a 10-inch display version of the Eee Pad. Asus rival MSI is fieldng two tablets: One features the Windows 7 operating system and the other is powered by Google’s Android OS. The tablets, called Wind-Pad, have 10-inch screens, 2 GB of RAM and a 1.6-GHz Atom processor. The tablets will offer 3G and Wi-Fi capability. Both are expected to be available in the third quarter of the year. “We understand that people are only willing to pay less than $500 for a tablet,” Andy Tung, vice-president of sales for MSI told Wired.com. “And because the OS is one of the biggest costs in the device, our Android tablet will be at least 20 percent cheaper than the Windows version.” Separately, Korean company Yukyung Tech has demoed an Android tablet under the brand name Viliv. It has a 10-inch capacitive touchscreen and claims to beat the iPad at display quality. The Viliv X10 tablet has an ARM-based processor, USB port, SD card reader, Wi-Fi and 3G capability. The company hasn’t offered detailed specs or pricing for the device. We haven’t heard about Viliv before, but it’s apparently big in Korea. The company has not said whether its X10 tablet would be available outside the country.  MSI 'Wind-Pad' Tablet Apple’s iPad has jumpstarted the tablets category. Since it went on sale in April, at least 2 million iPads have been sold, Apple says. Not surprisingly, other PC makers have taken notice of the demand and the hype. Dell says its 5-inch Android tablet will go on sale in the U.K. starting June 4. The Dell Streak will be free on a $36 (25 pounds) a month data contract with O2, or you’ll be able to buy it outright for $630 (429 pounds). Consumers that buy these new crop of tablets will consider factors such as mobility and applications, says Tung. “If you are looking at netbook-like super mobility then a Windows device will be important because you will want to do more than just surf with the tablet,” says Tung. “But if you just want a portable web device, then Android is a better choice.” At a time when HP has reportedly given up on its Windows-powered Slate in favor of a Palm webOS-based tablet, the arrival of Windows-based tablets should be good news for Microsoft and its fans. But Microsoft’s vision for a tablet could fall short of consumer expectations, says Michael Cherry, vice-president of research for operating systems at independent research firm Directions on Microsoft. “Microsoft’s vision for the tablet is an extension of the laptop family,” he says. “So things you can do on a tablet are the same as what you can do on a PC. But the downside is the battery life doesn’t last beyond four hours and the device boots slowly — both of which are becoming negative attributes.” Tung says that MSI has extended the battery life on its tablets to up to eight hours. Ultimately, Tung says flexibility and options are what will drive tablet sales. “Apple has a very strong app store, which helps the iPad,” he says. “But there are enough Windows- and Android-based apps out there to make our tablets attractive to consumers.” Photos: (Masaru Kamikawa/Flickr) See Also:
Photo: 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:30 pm Asus, MSI Tablets Lead the Charge Against the iPadMSI and Asus show tablets at Computex that promise to be less expensive than the iPad and available in the next few months.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:30 pm Asus, MSI Tablets Lead the Charge Against the iPadMSI and Asus show tablets at Computex that promise to be less expensive than the iPad and available in the next few months.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:30 pm CEDIA EXPO 2010 Registration Now OpenINDIANAPOLIS, June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2010 Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) EXPO online registration is now open. CEDIA EXPO is to be held September 22-26 in Atlanta.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:18 pm Wikileaks Was Launched With Intercepts From Tor AnonymizerWikileaks, the controversial whistleblowing site that exposes secrets of governments and corporations, obtained a cache of more than a million documents in an internet eavesdropping operation by one of its activists.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:17 pm 10 Tips For Boosting Network Performancesnydeq writes "InfoWorld's Paul Venezia and Matt Prigge provide hands-on insights for increasing the efficiency of your organization's network. From losing the leased lines, to building a monster IT test lab on the cheap, to knowing how best to accelerate backups, each tip targets a typical, often overlooked IT bottleneck."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:12 pm Android Compatibility and Fragmentationtbray writes "Here are the details on the Android Compatibility Program — which combines the source, a formal compatibility spec, an open-source test suite, and access to the Android Market as reward for good behavior (program page). People like to rant about the subject of fragmentation, so here's TFM that they should be R'ing first."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:12 pm NETGEAR Announces Technology Collaboration With SamKnows for FCC's National Broadband Speed TestSAN JOSE, Calif., June 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NETGEAR®, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:02 pm Compunetix and Hitachi High-Technologies Establish EVERGREEN(TM) Distribution AgreementMONROEVILLE, Pa., June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Compunetix, Inc., announced that they have signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (HHT) in Japan for its new line of EVERGREEN(TM) video Multipoint Control Units (MCUs). The EVERGREEN family of MCUs marks the reemergence of Compunetix into the videoconferencing collaboration market.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm Fossils Suggest Menu That Made Humans PossibleNew fossils have provided a snapshot of proto-human diets during a critical evolutionary moment, when better fare helped our small-brained ancestors boost their cognitive capacity.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm Compunetix and Spire Global Establish EVERGREEN(TM) Distribution AgreementMONROEVILLE, Pa., June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Compunetix, Inc., announced that they have signed a distribution agreement with Spire Global within the United States for its new line of EVERGREEN(TM) video Multipoint Control Units (MCUs). The EVERGREEN family of MCUs marks the reemergence of Compunetix into the videoconferencing collaboration market.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm MeeGo Moorestown tablet spotted at COMPUTEX, looks impressiveSection: Computers, Mobile Computers, Trade Shows  There’s a new supposed iPad rival announced every month, but one of the more captivating devices to bear the burden of taking on the iPad was spotted today at COMPUTEX. Engadget caught a glimpse of a MeeGo-powered 10-inch tablet, and though it’s still not ready for launch, early signs point to a worthwhile product. The Quanta Redvale MeeGo tablet has a 1.5 GHz Moorestown processor and runs theMeeGo netbook operating system that first appeared a few days ago. It has been optimized for touchscreens and includes a beautiful interface that comes in two modes. The first mode showcases an app-centric launcher in simple view, but the panel mode features widget-like feeds and contents that look quite impressive. The devil is in the details and we’re still light on price, but this device-in-progress has some potential. Expect to see this possibly early next year. Below is the video showcasing the tablet. Image and video courtesy of [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Andrew Kameka for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 1 Jun 2010 | 2:40 pm The Muppets' 1967 IBM Sales Filmsharrymcc writes "Forty-three years ago, before most people had ever heard of the Muppets, IBM contracted with Jim Henson for a series of short films that it used to educate and entertain its sales staff. These little-known movies — some of which feature cutting-edge office automation equipment such as very early word-processing systems — remain fresh, funny, and surprisingly irreverent. And one of them features the first appearance of the Cookie Monster, who got his big break on Sesame Street a couple of years later."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 1 Jun 2010 | 2:33 pm Impossible Happiness, an elegy for Peter Orlovsky by Steve Silberman
My friend Steve Silberman wrote an elegy for poet Peter Orlovsky, Allen Ginsberg's longtime companion. Orlovsky died on Sunday at a hospice in Vermont. Peter and Allen were the first gay married couple that most people ever heard of. As well as being Allen's comrade, Peter was an enthusiastic organic farmer, poet, and musician who taught at Naropa University and performed in a million benefits with Allen worldwide. After Allen died in 1997, Peter was well cared for by the Shambhala Buddhist community, as I describe in the piece.Impossible Happiness, an elegy for Peter Orlovsky by Steve Silberman Photo of Peter Orlovsky and Allen Ginsberg by Cliff Fyman New Antarctic Animals Look Like PlantsSix new animals found in Antarctica look more flora than fauna.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 2:26 pm Funky FoodsIsraeli farmers are redefining our perception of food with mini watermelons and worm-shaped berries.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 2:13 pm Video: Alex Varanese's My Desk Is 8-bitSays Alex Varanese of his stop-motion animated shoot'em'up:I'd like to think I'm the first person to be inspired by Michel Gondry and R-Type on the same project.And I'll be damned if it's not dying for a collaboration with Crayon Physics creator Petri Purho. the art of alex varanese - my desk is 8-bit Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jun 2010 | 1:59 pm Image: While you were Tetrising...
Nick 'Hammo' Hamilton on the dangers of Game Boy distraction. [via Tiny Cartridge]Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jun 2010 | 1:58 pm Breakthrough In Stem Cell CulturingFor the first time, human embryonic stem cells have been cultured under chemically controlled conditions without the use of animal substances, which is essential for future clinical uses.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jun 2010 | 1:52 pm Google phasing out Windows
From the FT, via Forbes:
The Financial Times reported that, because of security concerns about hacking attacks and viruses, Google has been ending its use of Windows since January.Google Doesn't Want To Do Windows Anymore Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jun 2010 | 1:50 pm Rumor: Amazon Kindle “Shasta” to launch with Wi-Fi this AugustSection: Gadgets / Other, ebooks  The next-generation Kindle rumors are starting to heat up now. Just the other day we mentioned the Bloomberg report that calls for the device to come available in August. And now, now it looks like that Kindle will be available in two flavors—one with and one without Wi-Fi. That and, the device is sporting the codename of Shasta. Via [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 1 Jun 2010 | 1:39 pm Phoenix Pterosaur Rises Again Out of the SaharaA new pterosaur, named after the mythological Phoenix, has been unearthed in the Sahara desert.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 1:30 pm Fla. Ridges' Mystery Marine Fossils Tied To Rising Land, Not SeasSea level has not been as high as the distinctive ridges that run down the length of Florida for millions of years.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jun 2010 | 1:12 pm Jamestown Trash Reveals Struggling SettlementAn unusually long-lasting drought plagued early colonists of the first permanent British settlement in North America.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 1:10 pm Rumor: Google encouraging employes to use Macs, Linux to improve securityFROM GAMERTELL - Wow, talk about a major burn. To improve internal security, Internet overlord Google is said to be encouraging its employees to move away from Windows and use Macs or Linux instead… Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 1 Jun 2010 | 1:08 pm Concealed Patterns Beneath Life's VarietyA synthesis of studies of how biodiversity changes reveals trends over space and timeAlthough the tropics appear to the casual observer to be busily buzzing and blooming with life's rich variety when compared with temperate and polar regions—a fact that scientists have thoroughly documented—the distribution of species in space and time actually varies around the globe in surprising and subtle ways.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jun 2010 | 1:01 pm Vodafone UK ships the world’s first Bada phone, the Samsung Wave
And we’re off! Without all that much fanfare following the announcement of Samsung’s smartphone operating system, Bada, the first Bada-powered handset has shipped. This morning, customers who had pre-ordered the Samsung Wave through Vodafone UK began receiving their handsets. Samsung’s hoping to sell 20 million of these things (as in Bada phones) by the end of next year. Seem crazy? Sure — until you remember that Samsung managed to sling 5 million Tocco Lites in 4 months. What do you think? Can they hit the 20 million mark in a year and a half? Drop us a comment below and tell us why or why not.
Source: MobileCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 12:43 pm Rumor: Samsung to launch the Android-powered Galaxy S superphone in 110 countries simultaneously
In the grand world of electronics, it’s pretty much customary to launch in one country, wait a few days, launch in another, and so on. At most, companies launch their new toys in two or three countries at a time – it’s just really the only sane way to do it, you know? Remind me not to ever call Samsung sane.
According to a Korea Times report from this morning, ol’ Sammie is planning on launching the Galaxy S in not one, not twelve, but one hundred and ten countries around the world on the same day. To put that in perspective: there are only 192 (or 195, depending on who’s counting) countries in the world. If Korea Times’ report pans out, Samsung’s going to be attempting to launch a handset in roughly 57% of the world simultaneously. On one hand, it’s a clever move; as the Android space starts filling up, it’s getting harder and harder to standout. By pinning a worldwide launch on one day, they can dump money into playing up that one day’s importance in a global, unified advertising campaign. On the other hand, it introduces one hell of a lot of points of failure. Launch day stories leave lasting impressions, setting people’s perceptions of a device in stone. Go big or go home, right?
Source: MobileCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 12:25 pm 2 million now served - iPad on track to beat *both* Macbooks and Mac in sales volumeSection: Computers, Mobile Computers, Hardware, Netbooks, Wireless
Looking at other Apple sales in Q1 of this year, Apple sold 2.1 million Macbooks and 3.36 million Macs. Keep in mind, these are global results. Also interesting to keep in mind, many of the international markets are currently sold out. Apple will have to iron out supply issues and get their iPads into what appears to be very hungry consumer hands. If Apple continues to feed the fire both at home and abroad the 3 million (extrapolated) iPad sales plus a push from being sold out internationally - like a second opening day - could push iPad sales over the 3.36 mark. The question becomes: can demand stay this high?
Only nine countries came online as iPad sellers this past weekend. Another nine are slated for July and additional later this year. Read: [Apple] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 1 Jun 2010 | 12:24 pm Qualcomm Ups the Game With Faster Smartphone Processor
Pick any of the smartphones launched this year and chances are it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor in it. The Snapdragon chips, which can run at up to 1 GHz, have been at the core of devices such as Google’s Nexus One, HTC’s Incredible and the HTC Evo 4G. Now Qualcomm is getting ready to introduce dual-CPU chipsets that boost the speed to 1.2 GHz and 1.5 GHz. The chipsets, called MSM826, MSM8660 and QSD8672, are likely to show up in stores by the end of the year. Handset manufacturers are currently designing products based on the processors, says Qualcomm. The dual cores and higher processing speeds will allow for better multimedia performance. The chipsets also include a graphics processing unit with 3-D and 2-D acceleration engines for better rendering, 1080p video encoding and decoding capabilities, and integrated low-power GPS. They can support 24-bit 1280 x 800 resolution displays, says Qualcomm. As smartphones get more ambitious in their desire to offer a video and web experience similar to that of PCs, there’s greater need for increased processing power. Last month, Adobe showed an early version of the Flash Player 10.1 for the Android operating system. Flash Player 10.1 on Nexus One can display video and animation unmatched by most other smartphones. But the technology also requires more processing power than current devices can offer. In Wired.com’s tests, the Nexus One’s 1 GHz Snapdragon processor seemed sluggish and struggled to render Flash sites quickly using Flash Player 10.1. Adobe has said it is hoping a newer generation of smartphones will change that experience. Qualcomm is certainly trying to encourage it. At the Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, Qualcomm is showing a range of new Snapdragon-powered devices — not all of them phones. Among them are Acer’s newly launched Liquid and neoTouch smartphones, Dell’s Streak 5-inch Android tablet, Huawei’s S7 tablet and Lenovo’s LePhone smartphone. See Also:
Photo: Qualcomm Snapdragon (doctorserone/Flickr) 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 1 Jun 2010 | 12:17 pm Qualcomm Ups the Game With Faster Smartphone ProcessorYour smartphone is set to get even more powerful. Qualcomm's latest processors up the speed and introduce dual cores so the video and multimedia experience will be better.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 1 Jun 2010 | 12:17 pm Wired Video: HTC Evo 4G Dissected
HTC’s next Android-powered missile is a big-ass smartphone called the Evo. Designed to run on Sprint’s 4G network, the Evo is packed with a number of powerful features underneath its beautiful 4.3-inch touchscreen. To give us a look at the Evo’s guts, repair company iFixit disassembled the smartphone in an exclusive video shoot with Wired.com. Some of the most notable observations include the behemoth 8-megapixel camera sensor, accompanied with a much smaller 1.3-megapixel front-facing cam for video conferencing. Also impressive was the HTC-branded battery (3.7-volt, 1500 mAh rechargeable Li-ion), which contains 23 percent more capacity than an iPhone 3GS, 15 percent more than an HTC Droid Incredible, and 7 percent more than an HTC Nexus One. The Evo is due in stores June 4, just three days before Apple is expected to announce its fourth-generation iPhone at the Worldwide Developers Conference. Leaked prototypes of the next-gen iPhone revealed a front-facing camera, also presumably designed for video conferencing. The Evo and the fourth-gen iPhone may be the first mobile contenders to spark a battle for video calls. Check out the video above for a deep dive of iFixit’s dissection, starring iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens. This episode of the Gadget Lab video podcast was produced by Annaliza Savage, with editing by Michael Lennon and audio engineering by Fernando Cardoso. For more video from Wired.com, go to www.wired.com/video. See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:52 am A Deepwater Horizon Spill, Every YearThe oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico pales in comparison to epic scale of pollution in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, one of the richest oil and gas-producing regions in the world.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:50 am Wired Video: HTC 4G Evo DissectedHTC's next smartphone possesses a number of powerful features, exposed in this tear-down of the device.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:30 am More iPhone 4 innards leak out
If you live around Cupertino, you may have heard it: a mighty roar that shook the walls to dust, and reached into your soul to shake your very core. This morning, someone had to wake Steve Jobs up and tell him that there’d been yet another next-gen iPhone leak.
This one’s not nearly as important as, you know, an entire prototype leaking out — but still, purported leaks are purported leaks. iPhone Portugal claims to have gotten their hands on the internal assembly frame (the “chassis”, so to speak) of the fourth iPhone, and shot plenty of video to back the claims up. Here’s how we see it: Could it be real? Sure. Could it be an incredibly hasty move by a Chinese cloning plant to recreate the iPhone 4 before it exists? Certainly! Outside of some pretty impressive engineering and the fact that everything we’re seeing here seemingly lines up with the little bit we’ve seen before, there’s no way to really say this is legit. [Via ZDNet]
Source: MobileCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:52 am Friday News Feedbag for May 28, 2010If this is your first exposure to the Friday News Feedbag... we're glad to have you in the club. Welcome to Feedbag Nation, which stems from our weekly science news podcast that you can subscribe to here on iTunes and ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:50 am Surviving the AntarcticA new digital library brings some of the world's most incredible tales of adventure and survival at sea available with the click of your mouse.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:07 am Animal Screams Manipulate Movie AudiencesOne reason why "The Exorcist" and "The Shining" scared audiences so much is that both had a lot of animal screaming in the soundtracks.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:07 am Take a test drive into the cloudWe’ve talked about the power of cloud computing and how millions of businesses have already gone Google by switching to Apps. But sometimes it’s hard to imagine what working in the cloud would really mean, and frequently, people ask us how they can better understand the benefits of Google Apps specifically for their business. How would online collaboration really affect your workplace? And how could increased email storage or integrated IM and video chat actually impact your company’s productivity?To answer some of these questions, we’ve created the Go Google cloud calculator to let you take a test drive into the cloud. Whether your company is big or small, brand new or been around for a while, this tool will give you a sense of the benefits of going Google in an easy-to-understand way. Here’s a quick demo: Once you take a spin and learn about the potential cost and time savings, the tool will create a custom URL, presentation PDF, spreadsheet or even a poster that you can share with other decision makers within your business as you discuss going Google. To show you a real-life example, we asked one our customers, Smart Furniture (you may remember them from their recent guest post), to test-drive the tool for us. And here’s their poster:  So if you’ve been thinking about moving your business to the cloud, take a couple minutes and see what it would be like to go Google. Be sure to tweet and share your results. The Go Google cloud calculator can be found at www.gonegoogle.com. Posted by Vivian Leung, Google Enterprise team    
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:06 am Two Brakes, One Hand: How To Stop a Polo Bike
My friend Kiko has a problem. He has an addiction to bike polo. He also choses to ride a freewheel bike, which means that with a mallet in his hand he only has one brake. Luckily, Kiko is also a tinkerer and has his own workshop, so it was an easy job for him to come up with this ingeniously simple solution, which operates two brakes with one lever. In bike polo, most of the time you are playing one-handed. If you ride a fixed-gear bike like many players then you can brake the rear wheel with your legs and pull the lever for the front brake with your left hand. If you ride freewheel, the usual solution is to keep the back brake so you can skid (important in polo for quick turns and looking cool). The problem is that the back brake isn’t good at actually stopping you quickly.
Kiko’s fix was to hook up two cables to a single lever, activated by the left hand. The design is incredibly simple, but does rely on some workshop skills to do it properly. After all, you really don’t want to mess up your only way of stopping, right? Here’s how to make it:
Find the hole in the brake lever where the brake cable is usually fixed into place. Drill through the opposite side with the same diameter hole and thread through an aluminum rod. This rod should be drilled with small holes for the cables to pass through, and these holes should have rounded seats for the cable-ends fashioned with a file. The next step is to make a metal plate with three holes. The central hole is for mounting it on the lever assembly, and should be made to fit the already existing nubbin from which the cable used to protrude. The other two should be drilled, threaded and fitted with two barrel-adjusters, as seen in the photos. Once made, you pass each cable through its own pair of holes. Pulling on the lever pulls both brakes. Best of all, you can tweak them using the barrel-adjusters to balance the brakes, adding a little more power to the back to help skidding, for example. Does it work? Yes. Very well. If Kiko’s game last night was anything to go by, then it might be better than riding fixed. And it isn’t just for bike polo. Operating two brakes with one hand could be great for somebody with just one arm, or a stroke victim without the use of a hand. A great DIY project, and one that is totally in the home-made spirit of bike polo. See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 1 Jun 2010 | 9:19 am MSI Wind-Pad, a Featherlight Multitouch TabletMSI, the OG of Atom-powered netbooks, is all set to try the same budget-hardware trick with tablets: behold, the Wind-Pad. This originally-named slate will have a 10-inch, 1024×600 capacitive touch-screen and contain a 1.66GHz Atom processor, 2GB RAM and a 32GB SSD along with HDMI-out, 3G and a claimed eight-hour battery life. Care to guess which OS the all-plastic computer will run? Android? Chrome? Nope, it will be encumbered with a full-on desktop operating system in the shape of Windows 7. MSI has papered a thin software covering over the top in the shape of the Wind Touch UI, which should make things a little more finger-friendly. Windows 7 does technically support touch out of the box, but I have tried it and it pretty much sucks. Essentially, then, this is a netbook without a keyboard. On the other hand, the video demonstration shared by TweakTown and shot at the Computex show this year, shows that although this is no slick and sexy iPad, it does seem a lot easier to use than a regular netbook. And remember, the Wind in its many forms has been a winner in the market, both as the perfect hackintosh machine and as a cheap-o portable computer. Apple certainly doesn’t need to worry about anything, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t be a hit – as long as the price is right. Available in the first half of 2010. MSI Wind-Pad [MSI] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 1 Jun 2010 | 8:43 am Best Buy drops prices of Kin One and Two, Verizon still burnin’ ya where it hurts
The new prices will help bring the phones one step closer to their target market: the feature-phone crowd. However, the biggest pricing complaint wasn’t due to their up-front cost, but, rather, Verizon Wireless’s smartphone tax of $30 per month. Keep going, guys, you’re almost there. [via Engadget]
Source: MobileCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 8:09 am Wii remote used to control Windows Phone 7 app (in emulator)
There aren’t many details available beyond that. It seems that WM Experts found out about it by watching a Twitter hashtag, so it’s anyone’s guess, really. What does this mean? Not heaps. Just because it was able to send accelerometer commands to an emulator running on a PC doesn’t mean it will work on a real phone, but it wouldn’t be the first time that a Wii remote has been used to control a phone. If you were there in Melbourne today and saw it in action, let us know what it was all about in the comments.
Source: MobileCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 7:35 am LG-Hitachi HyDrive Puts SSD into CD/DVD
Hitachi-LG comes to the rescue with a hybrid optical and SSD drive which is a slot-in replacement for your existing DVD player. The HyDrive combines a battery-sucking, disk-spinning drive with a quiet and fast SSD of either 32GB or 64GB (with higher capacities to come). This way you get to put the computer’s OS and applications on the speedy solid-state section, keep all your movies and data on the slower HDD and keep that old-fashioned optical drive around for the odd DVD-rip or software installation. Everyone’s a winner. Everyone except your pocketbook, that is. While prices haven’t been confirmed for the global September launch, Hitachi did let slip to Engadget that the HyDrive would add around $200 to the price of a machine thus equipped. The other route is to lose the CD/DVD altogether and replace it with an SSD, either hacking it yourself or paying somebody to do it for you. Hitachi-LG Data Storage Inc. (HLDS), today announced HyDrive [Hitachi-LG via Engadget] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 1 Jun 2010 | 7:32 am The HTC EVO 4G gets torn down to its naughty bits The HTC EVO 4G is a certainly one of the best looking cell phones ever created. It's sleek, sexy and beautiful. Even the inside looks great as iFixit found when they tore apart the upcoming superphone. Check our full review here.
Source: MobileCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 7:30 am Acer announces Ferrari-and-Android-powered Liquid E variant
Red, apparently. A whole lotta red. Acer has been Ferrari-fying their laptops for a great many years now, but this is their first Ferrari phone, and — more to the point — it’s the first Ferrari (and luxury) phone to have a decent OS behind it. The crimson beast is packin’ the same specs as the unfortunately-named Liquid E — that is, Android 2.1, a 768 MHz Snapdragon Processor, a 3.5″ 800×480 display, Wi-Fi, GPS, 256MB RAM, 512MB ROM, and a 5MP autofocus camera — but comes packaged in a subtly different body. Of course, the feature that matters most to any Ferrari fan — branding — isn’t missing, either. The bright red colour and Scuderia Ferrari logo are tastefully matched with Ferrari wallpapers, videos, and engine-noise ringtones. Sadly, there is no release date or price just yet. Don’t expect it to be a bargain, but also don’t expect Versace prices, either. Full PR is included, below.
Source: MobileCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 7:03 am Kin Studio web app shown off on video
Today, I understand why that is. The folks over at Pocket Now have uploaded a video run-through of the main features of the Silverlight-based web app, and, I gotta say, it’s pretty neat. Up until this point I’d never really considered the benefits of the Sidekick’s/Hiptop’s tendency to store everything in the cloud (I’d only ever really considered it as a form of backup, and look how that turned out…), but having your entire phone’s contents delivered to any PC you sit in front of — for the first time — actually seems a good idea. The software is web-based, and allows you to login to an Silverlight equipped PC to view, download, or share your photos and videos, read your text/MMS messages, and manage your contacts and RSS feeds. The coolest thing, though, is the presentation of it all: nice. Like, really nice. But enough from me, take a look for yourself, and gain an appreciation for the Kin Experience.
Source: MobileCrunch | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:34 am Panasonic Adds 8mm Fisheye to Micro Four Thirds Lineup
Panasonic’s new 8mm fisheye lens brings a 180º field of view to the Micro Four Thirds camera range, allowing photographers the opportunity to shoot both the sky and their own feet at the same time. On the MFT-system, with its half-frame sensor, the 8mm ƒ3.5 wide-angle is the equivalent of a 16mm fisheye on a 35mm camera. And these ultra-wide lenses are one of the few kinds of glass that don’t really need a super-wide maximum aperture: even an ƒ2 fisheye wouldn’t give you a super-shallow depth of field here, and because you aren’t zoomed-in on one detail far away as you would be with a longer lens, you don’t have to worry about camera shake, either. Just slow the shutter a little to get enough light at night. Other than just being wide, the lens also lets you slide in a piece of gel-filter into the rear for creative, Lomo-like effects, and the seven-bladed aperture should shape any out-of focus highlights you manage to achieve into pleasing blurs. The stepper-motors used for focussing are silent (for movie making) and the lens can focus as close as 10cm (four inches). The UK price has been announced as £730 ($1,060), which should probably bring it in at under a grand in the US, possibly in July. Panasonic Introduces World’s Smallest and Lightest Digital Interchangeable Fisheye Lens [Panasonic] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 1 Jun 2010 | 6:03 am Readers’ Hacks: New, Improved Headphone Cable-Winder
Gadget Lab reader and all-round handyman Anthony Matthews saw our post on the Bobino cable-tidy last week and decided to make his own. The first picture came along with this email, which is the kind of thing that makes this job so awesome:
The material choice is also great: The plastic of these crates weighs almost nothing at these sizes and stays healthy and unbroken however much you bend it. Great hack, Anthony. It just shows how easy home-made widgets can be if only you have the eagle-eyes necessary to spot the opportunity. You might want to stop eating over your keyboard, though. Those crumbs are pretty gross. See Also: 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 1 Jun 2010 | 5:05 am Apple Sells 2 Million iPads in 2 Months
In “less than 60 days,” Apple has shifted 2 million iPads. If you remember, it took just 28 days to sell the first million, so it doesn’t look like sales are slowing down much yet. In fact, it seems like Apple could have offloaded a lot more if only it could make them fast enough. The announcement, somewhat callously released on Memorial Day yesterday, comes after the opening weekend of the iPad’s international launch. While there’s no way to tell just how many units made it to Europe, Australia and Japan, one thing is certain: They sold out. Of the few places stocking the iPad in my hometown of Barcelona, Spain, the only iPads to be found were the demo units being pawed and covered in finger-grease by eager crowds. Accessories, too, remain in short supply. There are plenty of cases and screen protectors, but Apple’s own add-ons — the docks, cables and camera connection kit — are still weeks away. Two million sounds a lot, but how does it compare to a rather more mature segment, let’s say, the Mac? In the first quarter of this year, Apple sold 3.36 million Macs. Extrapolate the iPad figures to three months (3 million) and you get pretty close to that figure. And if you compare the sales of portable Macs for that same quarter (2.1 million), the iPad is already outselling the MacBook line. Sure, the entry-level iPad is half the price of the cheapest MacBook, but the iPad is also a brand new category of device, not a seasoned — and known — bestseller. The iPad, then, is a success, and the tablet mass market is officially here. We can’t wait to see what Google and Palm have got coming. Apple Sells Two Million iPads in Less Than 60 Days [Apple] See Also:
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 1 Jun 2010 | 4:26 am
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